Today's passage is Acts 7:54--8:3.
Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, tells the infuriated Sanhedrin that he sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God. They refuse to listen to anymore and stone Stephen to death. Just before he dies he asks God to forgive them. Young Saul guards the cloaks of the stoners. The persecution of the church begins with Saul becoming the chief persecuter.
There is a student in my school who says he tried to commit suicide just before the end of our first semester.
This is not news any teacher wants to hear.
We immediately took steps to find out whether it was true and, even if it isn't true, to learn how we can help the student by discovering which medical and government services we need to be in touch with.
We pray to God that this student will continue with counselling and receive the appropriate medication to alleviate his severe depression.
What I discovered in this episode is that I lack empathy for depressed people even though I was once depressed and on medication after my first wife's death.
But because I got over my depression I think others should too.
But they don't.
I think that if someone is depressed but also a Christian then they won't commit suicide.
This shows how limited my thinking is.
I feel that faith in God and his proven love for people are enough to ward off suicide due to depression.
But if this were true, then our church would not continually recommend that our depressed members go to a mental clinic.
Severe depression is a disease that needs to be treated with the best that medical science has to offer.
You can believe deeply in God but still be so depressed you want to die.
One reason is that there's a hormonal imbalance in the brain. There are other reasons too.
I blocked my ears to depression until today. I pray I am not deaf to it in the future.
Lord, let me not be like the self-righteous and deaf Sanhedrin.Open my heart and ears to hear what you are telling me through others. Let me not stand on the sidelines like Saul watching others throw stones at those who need to be loved.
